Sleep Spot
by PearlyPizza
Summary: A college/nursing student take on the prompt "I was so sleep-deprived after the night shift that I climbed into bed with you (and you just rolled with it)"


I was so sleep-deprived after the night shift that I climbed into bed with you (and you just rolled with it)

Madge loved nursing. She really did. Getting to help people, be there for them at their worst was the most humbling, amazing experience and she couldn't imagine doing anything else.

Tonight however, she cursed it. Her clinical was usually over at 7:30, but there was a crash on the interstate at 7, and they said that if students wanted to, they could stay and help out. How could she turn that down? Especially since Madge was hoping to do her synthesis* in the ER in the spring.

So Madge stayed and it was one of the coolest, scariest, Yes-This-Is-What-I-Want-To-Do-With-My-Life nights of her life, with injuries she had only seen on Grey's Anatomy and families who reacted to her as if she was an angel. While the night was amazing, it was also exhausting. Madge didn't get home until after midnight, 5 hours after she was supposed to be done, 19 hours after she had woken up.

Which why was she felt like a zombie when she got back to the apartment, barely having the energy to kick off her shoes and scrubs before falling into bed.

Waking up next to a pretty girl is always a great way to start the day, especially when it's the pretty girl who's been driving you nuts for the last 7 months. But when the pretty girl also happens to be your roommate and there's not a real reason for her to be in your bed, things get kinda odd. Safe to say, Gale Hawthorne was in a bit of a predicament.

What is a good way to wake up said pretty girl when you guys are fully intertwined? A kiss? No, too forward. Shove her out of the bed and act just as surprised? No, too Rory. _Gently_ annoy her into waking up seemed to be the only option.

"Madge. Madge. Maaadddgggee." No response. Maybe add in a bit of a shove? "MADGE!"

Finally, an eye cracked open, only to close again. Then both her eyes shot open.

"Gale! What are you doing in my bed? Not that there's anything wrong with you being in my bed, you know I'm all for free bed and you and I totally don't think you have anything wrong with you so I'm not being a germaphobe. But yes, what brings you over to my sleep. Sleep spot. Place where I rest my head." Gale felt a little better knowing he wasn't the only who got flustered, the only one who felt that there was something there.

"Well, you're in my bed/sleep spot to start. I just woke up with you here, but I'm glad that I'm welcome to come share your bed, especially since I have nothing wrong with me."

"What?" She paused to actually look around at her surroundings. This was definitely his room, but the lack of fluffy rugs, a top sheet and throw blankets confirmed it for her. "I got back from clinical so late last night I must have gotten straight into the closet bed possible. Oh god, I'm so embarrassed. Sorry, Gale." Her blond headed dropped face first into the pillow as she moaned (not how he imagined her moaning in his bed for the first time, but baby steps Gale, avoid morning wood, angle away).

"Awe Madge, my bed and I are touched that we are your first instinct, really"

"Shut up."

"Welcome to my sleep spot, membership is first come first serve. Extras include Netflix, late night scrolling through Facebook videos and cuddling." A cheeky grin accompanied his words, flirty instinct warrying with self-preservation.

"You know it just so happens that I am in need of all of those things, especially the cuddling. I'm willing to pay extra for the gold membership if it includes breakfast in bed." Gale's eyebrows raised at her words, seems she wasn't going to hold back on the flirting either.

"Alright, we accept cash, check and alternative forms of payment."

Her heart jumping out her chest, Madge let out a deep exhale, "How about kisses?"

Score one for Undersee, she was going for the gold. "Yeah. Yes. Yes, that is the preferred form of paym-". His words were cut off by her lips, pressed so softly against his own. In a moment, he was returning the embrace, her hands cupping his jaw as his slid around her back.

After a few minutes they stopped, shy smiles between the two. "Madge, I can't say I'm unhappy with where this is going, but I've got to ask, why now?"

"I came in late last night because of a major trauma in the ER, and it was absolutely heartbreaking for some of these people. They started the day thinking everything would be ok, that they had so much time. But then, they were just gone, in an instant. One of my patients just kept saying he wished he had one more day, one more minute to say all the things he never said.

"And I guess it hit me as I was driving home. I don't want to dance around this anymore. I want you, I want to be with you, and I think you want that too. I really hope you want that too, because, it's going to be really awkward around the apartment if you don't want that too." She looked away, nerves creeping back in.

"I do. I want that so much." Madge turned to face him again, the beginnings of a smile across her lips. He kissed her this time, firmly, holding her close to let her know how much she meant to him.

Soon, it grew heated as he pushed Madge onto her back, settling between her legs. Her arms started around his neck before moving lower, skimming his sides, his back, his strong arms. She titled her head back to grant him better across as Gale nosed her jaw line, nipping as he went.

Eventually, they slowed, both their shirts gone by this point. Madge lay on her stomach, face pillowed on her arms as Gale lay on his back. A serene moment, with the sun coming filtering in softly and the hum of the air conditioner in the background.

Madge broke the moment with, "So do you think I paid enough for that breakfast in bed?" Gale barked out a laugh in response, but Madge looked at him seriously. "Chop chop, saving lives works up quite a hunger."

Notes

**Synthesis is something nursing students do the last semester of nursing school, in which they are placed in a unit they want to work in, shadowing a nurse and doing everything a nurse does, just under the supervision of a registered nurse. It can get competitive in the popular units of pediatrics, labor and delivery, and ER.

Thanks for reading!

I didn't really like how I ended this but I tried a few different endings and this one was the best of them.

K


End file.
